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Ko Takeuchi
Ko Takeuchi is a video game artist and design director at Nintendo, mostly known for designing the characters of the WarioWare and Rhythm Heaven series, as well as for establishing the characteristic cartoony style of both series. History After graduating from the Horikoshi High School in Tokyo, Takeuchi studied at the Cartooning Faculty of the School of Visual Arts in New York. Back in Japan, after a small time in the company Warp where he worked on the game D-2, he joined Nintendo at the R&D1 department. His first title at the company was a Hamtaro title for the Game Boy Color, where he assisted Yoshio Sakamoto. After that, he was put in charge of designing the backgrounds of Wario Land 4. In [[WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!|''WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!]], Takeuchi was put in charge of redesigning Wario and creating all of the original cast characters of the title. He kept working on further titles of the franchise as art director and designing many other characters. Takeuchi also reprised those roles in the Rhythm Heaven series, starting with [[Rhythm Tengoku|''Rhythm Tengoku]]. He has been the main responsible of establishing the trademark art style of both series. Outside of Nintendo, Takeuchi also runs since 2001 Kokosac Inc., his personal design studio, along with his wife. He is particularly popular in social media websites for posting various caricatures of video game, anime and cartoon characters, as well as celebrities and memes. Game Works * D-2 (1999) - 3D Designer * ''Tottoko Hamtaro: Tomodachi Daisaku Ikusa Dechu'' (2000) - Assistant Director * ''Wario Land 4'' (2001) - Designer * [[WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!|''WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!]] (2003) - Character Design, Game Design, Graphic Design * [[WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!|''WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$!]] (2003) - Design Director, Character Design, Graphic Design, Voices, GBA WarioWare * [[WarioWare: Twisted!|''WarioWare: Twisted!]] (2004) - Game Design, Character Design, Design Director, Design, Voice * [[WarioWare: Touched!|''WarioWare: Touched!]] (2004) - Game Design, Character Design, Design * ''Play-Yan'' (2005) - Graphic Design * ''Rhythm Tengoku'' (2006) - Game Design, Design Director, Voice * ''WarioWare: Smooth Moves'' (2006) - Game Design, Character Design * ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' (2008) - Supervisor (Original Games) * ''Rhythm Heaven'' (2008) - Game Design, Design Director, Voice * [[WarioWare: Snapped!|''WarioWare: Snapped!]] (2008) - Character Design * [[WarioWare D.I.Y.|''WarioWare D.I.Y.]] (2009) - Character Design * ''Rhythm Heaven Fever'' (2011) - Game Design, Art Director, Voice * ''Game & Wario'' (2013) - Character Design * Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2014) - Supervisor (Original Games) he also designed the WarioWare and Rhythm Heaven trophies * Nintendo Badge Arcade (2014) - Badge Design, 2D Graphic Design * ''Rhythm Heaven Megamix'' (2015) - Art Director, Voice * [[Snipperclips - Cut it out, together!|''Snipperclips - Cut it out, together!]] (2017) - Art Adviser * [[WarioWare Gold|''WarioWare Gold]] (2018) - Character Design * Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) - Original Game Supervisor Special Thanks * ''Bird & Beans'' / Paper Airplane Chase (2008) * ''Tank Troopers'' (2016) Interviews * Gpara.com (archived) * 1101: Rhythm Tengoku * Iwata Asks: Rhythm Heaven * Iwata Asks: Rhythm Heaven Fever * Nintendo Dream: Rhythm Heaven Megamix External Links * Kokosac's Tumblr Page Category:WarioWare games Category:Articles marked for cleanup Category:Graphic designers Category:Video game designers Category:Character designers